


Water Witch

by HauntedAutomaton



Series: Mr. Universe and the Crystal Gems: Reunion Tour [5]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Action, Assassination Attempt(s), F/F, Fights, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 19:45:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10883673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HauntedAutomaton/pseuds/HauntedAutomaton
Summary: The morning after the greatest party of these gems' lives, Lapis and Peridot have to face an encounter from Homeworld. All thanks to Peri's big mouth.





	Water Witch

          THUD

          Peridot hit the floor of the barn, scattering plastic cups and water bottles. She laid there, feet still in the hammock, for a solid minute before finally peeling her face off the wooden floorboards.

          “Gruuuhhh...” she moaned, and began to traipse towards the barn entrance. As she reached it, she slumped against one of the doors, pressing it open. She drew in a deep breath of the early morning air, and pulled the alien boxer shorts out of her hair.

          “Lazuli...” Peridot called at last, “Lazuli...Laz...”

          “What?” came the beleaguered reply from atop the barn.

          “That was amazing,” Peridot responded without hesitation.

          “That was amazing.” Lapis confessed.

          “You were amazing.”

          “So were you!”

          Peridot looked back into the barn at the heaps of cobbled together audio equipment, and smiled. She could still hear Lapis' voice ringing through the rafters. She could still see all the humans and gems dancing below her, chanting her name. She hadn't believed the strange, lanky human at first. But she did have to admit, being a “dee-jay” with him was more fun than she ever remembers having.

          “Lapis...let's never do that again.”

          “STARS no. I feel like I'm cracked all over again!”

          Peridot drug herself around to the side of the barn where she kept the spare trashcan lids, and selected one that wasn't too dented. She dropped it onto the grass with a dull “pang,” and set about attempting to gingerly balance on her makeshift elevator.

          On the roof, Lapis Lazuli lay slumped against the side of the angled water tower. She cast a bleary stare at the heavens, watching as the stars were slowly fading against the approaching morning light. Her peace was disrupted by a shuddering clang of metal on wood. Lapis smiled, despite herself, and made room next to her for Peridot to sit down.

          “Nyeeeh.” Peridot slumped down next to her friend, and the two of them enjoyed the peace of the coming morning for a while. When the first birds began to call, the little gem finally spoke up again. “Thanks for being there.”

          “I had a performance to give, couldn't let down my fans, right?” Lapis shuffled closer to Peridot, and leaned on her shoulder and hair. “Besides, it's not like the rest of the night was a total wash,” she said with a smirk.

          “Nyheh, you were a hard act to follow,” Peridot responded, with her eyes closed. “Speaking of the rest of the night though,” she said as she opened them, “what was with you and that human?”

          Lapis sat up a little straighter. “What about him?”

          “...nothing.” said Peridot after a moment.

          The two of them resumed their watch over the skies. The sun would normally have risen by now, but dense clouds kept it at bay at least a little longer.

          “Storm.” said Lapis, noticing the eastern sky.

          “When?”

          “Later.”

 

* * *

 

 

          Peridot felt her friend slump over and begin to drift off into sleep. She listened to Lapis' deep, slow, rhythmic breaths, and vaguely wondered why it was that gems mimicked breathing even in sleep. Peridot had yet to experience sleep for herself, Amethyst had tried to tell her how to do it, but when “clear your mind” was the first step, the entire process seemed completely illogical. How does one think about nothing? Impossible.

          Peridot continued to stare at the fading stars, and the thoughts continued to flow:

          The loss of the Roaming Eye was a setback, but a new vessel might could be constructed if the Crystal Gems still had her escape pod.

          Details of corruption would have surely been relevant to her mission here on Earth, but no briefings contained any mention of it that she could remember.

          If Homeworld were to ever get their hands on Amethyst, they would shatter her whether she was a rebel or not.

          Last night a human actually asked to be her friend.

          She called Yellow Diamond a clod.

          At that thought, a smirk crept onto her face. Who knows what Yellow Diamond would do to her if she knew Peridot was still alive. Good thing the Diamond trusts her precious, unstoppable Cluster to get the job done. But of course, Peridot had stopped that too.

          “Nyehehe.” Peridot couldn't stifle the self-satisfied snicker.

          “Mmm? What are you so happy about?” Lapis mumbled into her friend's triangular mane.

          “Lazuli, how lucky are you to be friends with Homeworld's most wanted?”

          “You're really proud of yourself about that whole 'clod' thing aren't you?”

          “Of course I am!” Peridot replied a bit too loudly, causing Lapis to furrow her brow, “No doubt I am positively infamous by now.”

          “And you're not worried about that at all?”

          “Pa-lease, Lazuli. I've more than covered my tracks. There is absolutely no way Yellow Diamond knows I'm still around.”

          Before Lapis could open her mouth to question that claim, an angular shadow tore through the air above, and came to a sudden halt directly above the corn field.

 

* * *

 

 

          Lapis crawled to the edge of the roof to size up this newest invader.

          “I have to admit,” she whispered with a wry smile “Homeworld does have excellent timing. Well Peri, you want me to take care of this one, or do you want to test out your drones some more?”

          Lapis looked back at Peridot, who was shrinking away with wide eyes.

          “We have to leave,” Peridot spoke with a single, faint breath, “We have to run, Lapis fly us away, we have to run now!” Her voice was now only barely contained as a whisper.

          “I am not running,” Lapis stood, no longer bothering to keep her voice low. “This is my home,” As she rose, so too did a limb of frothing water from the makeshift pool below.

          Instantly, the black arrowhead ship was bristling with spines that erupted seamlessly from its hull. The shards shot out with a whistling scream and impacted all throughout the barn. The water tower was struck several times, leaving black blades half-embedded in the metal shell. Many more sailed through the emerging liquid arm under Lapis's control. As they did, grey particles spread throughout the water, and the form collapsed into a thick pool of dull silt. Three more shards were shrieking their way directly at Lapis herself, but before they found their mark, Peridot knelt forward and brought her trashcan lid shield to bear. Two of the barbs impacted with hideous tearing, sticking themselves into the lid. The third shot just past Lazuli's head, and splashed through her left water wing. The wing was rapidly consumed by grey silt, and fell into a puddle on the wooden roof. Lapis had just enough time for one expression of confused panic before she was tackled to the side by her smaller friend.

          The two gems tumbled off the roof and plummeted towards the tall grasses at the side of the barn. Peridot managed to catch herself slightly with her hovering trashcan lid, but still made an impressive imprint in the weeds. Lapis, on the other hand, instinctively tried to unfurl her wings, but found she only had one. She fell in a heap onto her legs, and bit back a cry. Even though her body had no bones to break, the landing was still painful.

          “Lapis!” Peridot tried to whisper.

          She didn't reply at first, but as Lapis managed to right herself she responded.

          “Why...why can't...my wing...the water...I can't control it.”

          “If I had to guess?” Peridot answered, “Because it isn't water anymore.”

          Lapis followed her friend's meaningful stare, and saw the grey sludge dripping down the side of the leaking water tower.

          The blue gem took a steadying breath, and hobbled to her feet. She looked back over her shoulder to her remaining wing, then outstretched her right arm, willing the liquid to flow down it. Her right wing formed itself into a large fist molded over her arm.

          “What are you doing?!” Peridot hissed, “We have to leave! Do you have any idea what kind of ship that is?”

          “Uh...do you?”

          “Well...no...but I know what kind of gem uses a ship like that. A Jet!”

          “What is a...” Lapis began, peeking around the corner barn.

          She saw the shining, black starship still hovering over their crop of corn. It was a dark arrowhead, with glimmering gold trim along the edges. The craft was over half the length of the entire barn, and almost a third as wide. A canopy retracted atop the ship, and a lithe figure stepped out onto the angular hull. The gem stood tall, as tall as Garnet, with a dull black rectangular gem set in the center of her high throat. She had sharp, pale hair falling over dark grey skin. Her eyes were dark, with only glints of refracted light to hint at pupils. Her functional uniform was spartan, save for its gold edges and a single sharp gauntlet on her left arm. She used this gauntlet to summon a holo-screen, and enter a few commands. After dismissing the interface, she leaped from the ship and landed in its shadow below. The craft above her began to distort the blue morning light, and cloaked itself from sight. As the craft camouflaged itself, its shadow disappeared, revealing the empty field where the Jet once stood.

          Lapis jerked back behind the corner of the barn the moment she realized she had lost sight of the intruder.

          “Ok, Peri, so what is a Jet?”

          Peridot took just a moment to offer her friend a quizzical look before composing herself.

          “Oh, right, you haven't been in touch with Homeworld for a while,” she whispered, leading her around to the front of the barn.

          “You could say that,” Lapis responded dryly.

          “Well, Jets are Era II gems. They are the direct agents of the Diamonds. They make things happen that the system just isn't equipped to handle. Like, say, rounding up a bunch of Rose Quartzes, or-”

          “Or eliminating 'Homeworld's most wanted?'” offered Lapis.

          “Exactly,” came a dark voice from above them.

          A hail of shards rained down on the pair of refugee gems, but Peridot was quick enough with the battered trashcan lid to protect them both from the barrage. Lapis lashed out with a sweep of her arm, trailing a long limb of water, tipped with a curved, icy blade. Her target evaded the strike, and leaped from the barn rooftop, landing several paces away. Peridot hunkered low, with her scrap shield floating in front. Lapis stood back with her liquid arm raised high, ready to strike.

          “Impressive little scrapheap,” the Jet spoke with an even tone, as though she were simply stating her taunts as observable fact. “I take it most of this is the relic Lazuli's doing?” Jet sidestepped over to a hanging mobile of balanced mirrors. One of many artistic sculptures scattered around the barnyard. “They always did have a knack for changing a place to suit them.”

          “What do you want?” growled the ocean gem.

          “Of course,” Jet began, ignoring her, “without a Diamond's direction,” she placed a sharp gauntlet claw atop the piece, “they always just bring ruin.” With a delicate touch she sent the mirrors crashing to the ground. Jet looked back to the gems, before responding to Lapis's question.

          “I thought that was obvious. I am here to carry out the will of Yellow Diamond. And her will, is that you,” she pointed an armored black claw at Peridot, “are to become a choir of screaming shards.”

          The small, green gem couldn't suppress a shudder, but she felt her friend step close to her.

          “But I'm not here for antiques, terraformer,” Jet continued, “so step aside and go back to changing things around for no good reason.”

          “Lapis isn't the only one who's done some changing,” snapped Peridot, and she swept her hand to the side in a claw-like grip. Shards of the mirror sculpture, still attached to their rebar frames, shot up from the ground around Jet. With a deft leap she was clear of their serrated paths, but this gave Lapis and Peridot enough of an opening to get away from the wall.

          Peridot continued her push. She hopped up onto her makeshift hover-disk, and began disassembling meep-morps at range. She hurled the projectiles as fast as she could procure them. This battle might be worthy of a morp of its own, should she survive it. After all, pieces of art made to celebrate freedom were being used as literal ammunition against an oppressive authority.

          A little on-the-nose, she decided.

          While Jet was occupied by Peridot's assault, Lapis took the flank. She propelled herself forward by grabbing the dirt with her large, aqueous limb, and hurling herself forward. She covered ground quickly, and made for a strike at Jet.

          Even with two pursuers, however, Jet was still able to out-maneuver of them. She was always a step ahead, but still, on the defensive, and evading would only last her so long.

          “Nyrrrah!” Peridot cried out, “I swear, it's like trying to kill Pearl all over again!”

          “We've got her on the run!” Lapis called in return, “C'mon!”

          Peridot swooped in alongside Lapis as the two followed the fleeing Jet into the tall grass behind the barn. “She's stalling, trying to see what we can do,” said the technician, trying to remember her emergency combat training, “We need to finish this!”

          “How?”

          “I'll hem her in, you take your shot and make it count!”

          Lapis nodded, and Peridot reached out with her hand and mind, calling forth her drone remote from the open barn. The controller sped to her outstretched arm, and with it, she activated her drone squadron.

          The aerial robonoids closed in, and began to encircle the Homeworld agent. But before they could close the snare, Jet produced a black hemisphere from her gauntlet's palm. She flicked the device into the air, and it released a pulse of golden crackling energy. One by one, each of the robonoids hit the dusty earth among the amber grass.

          “Silt!” Peridot spat.

          “Language,” Lapis called back out of habit, and closed on her target.

          It was clear Lazuli was unaccustomed to close quarters combat, but the range her water arm afforded her let her keep Jet on the back foot. The blue gem mixed slashing frozen blades with crushing strikes of blunt water, but could never land a solid hit.

          “She insulted a Diamond, Lapis Lazuli,” the Jet said, backing out of Lapis's range, “that doesn't bother you at all? That level of treachery?”

          “I think it's funny,” Lapis spoke with a dead, dry voice. She launched forwards with a frozen scythe, but was only able to reap grass, as Jet ducked beneath the strike. Her face, however, was twisted into disgust at Lapis's words.

          Peridot circled the pair on her tattered metal disk, and drew her hand up; calling forth the scraped drones scattered across the grass below. The technician's arms lifted into a crescendo, and her face contorted in effort.

          “Nyrrraaahhh!” she cried, as the robonoids rended apart into jagged shrapnel. Pressing her hands down, Peridot forced the swarm of debris to speed at the assassin.

          Jet lifted her gauntleted hand, and black armor spread across her body in angular segments, until she was clothed in a full suit of dark crystalline plates. Now protected, she simply let the falling drones impact her form. They glanced off her armored form, and didn't so much as even scratch the black suit.

          “Of course...” Peridot complained, “Just so you know! If I still had my enhancers, you'd be gravel right now you clo-” Her hovering disk was impacted by a shard of crystal launched from Jet's gauntlet. Peridot fell into a cloud of dust as her now decimated trashcan lid split in half and tumbled into the grass some ways away.

          “Peridot!” cried Lapis.

          She pressed the attack. With the armor, Jet wasn't agile enough to avoid a blow from her water arm. Ice would surely shatter against the plate suit, however, and blunt strikes would do little to pierce the armor; so the blue gem tried a different tact. A liquid tendril whipped forward and wrapped around Jet's left arm. The water congealed into a column that connected the gems, hand to hand.

          “Gotcha,” Lapis sneered, and began to draw them together. Jet dug her heels into the soil, but the loose earth would not let her keep footing, as she slid forwards. The binding of water crept up the agent's arm, and began to constrict her form.

          Jet's sneered with the faintest hint of pain, and she held her free hand out to her side. She summoned a screen from her palm, and touched a single pointed claw to it.

          Instantly, a jagged eruption could be heard across the field, as another barrage of black shards was launched from the ship. Lapis tried to keep hold of her quarry while the spines fell, but a single spear cut through her watery grasp.

          “No!” the ocean gem cried as her undulating limb was consumed by grey silt. Lapis fell to the ground, with hardly any water left to her.

          “There,” said the Jet with a resolute finality, “out of tricks now?” She strode past Lapis kneeling in the grass. “Good.”

          “Nyraghr!” Peridot let out a war-cry as she leaped from the tall grass, but it was cut short as she was caught midair by the neck. “Ar-GUH!”

          “Now to do what I came here for.” Jet sneered, and lifted Peridot to her eye level.

          Peridot was struggling in the Jet's clawed grasp. “Why, nyrugh, why not just let the cluster finish me? Do you even know about the cluster you ignorant clod?”

          “Oh I know about the geo-weapon, 2F5L, 5XG. But Yellow Diamond wants you to suffer.” Jet pulled her finger over Peridot's cracked visor, and stopped above her gem. “And she will get her wish. By the end of the day, you are going to be nothing more than a handful of dust, and I won't have to see any more of the barbaric planet ever again.”

          A sharp crack, followed by a low thunderous roar fell across the sky.

          Jet looked around for a moment, seeming to scan for any threats, then turned her focus back to Peridot. “Seems like this planet is on borrowed time anyway, since it sounds like that 'cluster' thing is on its way.”

          Peridot stared back at in almost complete disbelief. “You...did you happen to actually read all the way through the dossiers on this planet?”

          “Hah! I already know far more about this place than I ever cared to. The prototype for my entire type was first made here back when they were trying to make synthetic gems for the war. That lead to the shard fusion trials and the cluster and blah blah blah.” Jet took on a suddenly furious expression, and her grip tightened around Peridot's throat. “I was not made on some backwater rock-pile. I was made by Era II technology and the greatest minds of the authority! I was not pulled out of some dirt hole like you, so no, I do not care that my type was founded here, I feel no sentimentality about this place, and I will not read another report about this speck of soggy debris!”

          The technician struggled under Jet's grip, but a wry smile had spread across her face during the assassin's tirade. “Don't worry, Jet, I learned the hard way too. Always read the report.”

          Another roll of thunder made its way over the fields, and a single drop of clear liquid appeared on Peridot's visor.

          Jet slowly shifted her focus, from the Peridot's eyes, to the drop creeping down the crack in the green visor. Two more drops fell onto her face shield, causing Jet to lower her finger down onto the visor. She swept her digit slowly across the fracture, then turned her finger over to examine the bit of liquid.

          On her fingertip rested a single drop of pure, clear, rainwater.

          Jet's eyes crept up from Peridot's, and she saw the rain around her. A hemisphere of fallen water, halted in the air. The drops were quivering, almost blurred. Another peal of thunder rang out. Jet dropped Peridot, who fell onto the grass rubbing her neck. The small gem wore a wry smirk, but it sank from her face as she looked to her friend behind the Homeworld operative.

          Jet turned to see Lapis Lazuli, no longer on the ground, but in the air. The sky behind her was frothing with storm, and fractures of lightning streaked throughout the blackening clouds. The ocean gem's eyes were blank reflections, but her face was etched with malice. Her wings were broad, with sheets of water tearing from their fringes, and her hair was undulating wild behind her scowl.

          The agent paused, just long enough to attempt to quell the panic, then flicked her gauntlet to summon the silver command screen once more. Before the motion was even complete, however, there was another deafening thunder, and the ship that was cloaked over the corn field was sundered by lightning and water. By the time Jet had processed the sound, her ship was a smoldering pile of scrap.

          “Wait,” she tried to say, but the suddenly howling winds tore her plea asunder. The rain that had been halted around them resumed with an unnatural fury. A vortex of stormcloud formed overhead, as the rain was no longer merely falling from the sky, but being actively ripped from the heavens. The golden grasses all around the group of gems were being whipped into frantic arcane circles by desperate winds. The assassin tried to predict where the strike would come from. Out of reflex she hoped to elude it. But there was no arm of water this time. There were thousands.

          Each hand started scarcely larger than a raindrop, but as the multitudes of arms closed on their target, they converged into a grasping maw of water. As the Jet was taken by the torrent, her gauntlet and armor were cast aside. Her limbs were twisted and contorted by the swell. She let out a cry that was drowned by the clutching grip of the single arm of liquid towering higher than the barn. The currents did relent, however, even if only slightly, and she managed to push her head above the surface of the fist.

          “Lapis!” gasped the Jet, “Lapis Lazuli!”

          Lapis drifted down towards her captive, but said nothing. Her face registered no recognition, and the storm above only grew.

          “Lapis I can make you a deal,” pleaded the captive Jet. “We can leave. Together. You can get off this rock. You can be free again.”

          Lazuli stopped close to Jet's face, and narrowed an eye.

          “Get me to the galaxy warp! I can fix it! I'll say the Peridot is shattered, and no one will come after her. She'll be alive, I'll be alive, and you'll be free. You can even have your status back! I'll say you helped. I'll call you a hero to Homeworld. Whatever goes in my report, that's the only truth that matters.”

          Lapis set her jaw and looked to her friend below. Peridot was bracing herself against the torrential winds, and shielding herself from the rain as best she could. Lazuli could barely make out that she was calling her name. The ocean gem returned her gaze to the Jet, and began to slowly tighten her grip on the captive. “You might, MIGHT,” she emphasized, with a voice much larger than her small frame should hold, “have had a chance with your offer...yesterday. But you're just a bit too late. This is my home. And I am free.”

          Jet let out a cry as she was crushed, dissipating into a silver, glittering cloud. With the burst of light, the arm of water shivered, buckled, then fell into a wave washing over the grassy field. The howling wind rippled and died out, as the vortex of clouds came to a halt.

          Lapis's feet came to rest on the pool of water left over from the giant limb. In her hand, she held a dark rectangular gem. “Now,” she said, “you're my prisoner.” An indigo bubble formed around the Jet gemstone, and with a tap, it warped away.

          Peridot floated by on her back, and looked up to her friend. Lapis's eyes were still mirrored voids, but her face was just weary now instead of furious. “Lapis are you ok?”

          The blue gem blinked, and her eyes were restored, but she wavered. Her feet fell into the water, and she nearly faltered.

          “Lapis!” Peridot cried, picking herself up out of the mud. She trudged through the pool and caught Lapis on her shoulder.

          “Not really,” Lapis finally answered, “but I will be.” She leaned on her smaller friend for a few moments. “You alright, Peri?”

          “Nyeh, we Peridots are tougher that we look,” she replied with a tight throat.

          After helping Lazuli slosh to the edge of the muddy pond, the two threw themselves down on the broken stalks of grass.

          Peridot lay there for a bit, the point of her hair dripping, and watched the clouds start to clear away. With a deep breath she spoke, “Lapis I'm sorry.”

          “For what?”

          Peridot shot her a sideways glance. “For bringing a Homeworld assassin to your home?”

          “You didn't make her come here, the Diamonds did. And it's your home too.”

          “Ok, but I basically didn't help, and you had to deal with her.”

          Lapis turned to face her barnmate. “You did help. And besides, you were in more danger than me, so it basically evens out.”

          Peridot turned back to the sky. “If you say so.”

          “Besides,” said Lapis, standing up, “it was fun.”

          Peridot laid in the mud for several more seconds without responding.

          “FUN?”

          Lapis slowly started walking towards the barn, smirking as she went.

          “That is your idea of 'fun,'” Peridot grilled her as she caught up. “Not even humans are that idiotic in their definitions of fun.”

          “Ok, so maybe 'fun' isn't the right word.”

          “I should hope not.”

          Lapis paused to think. “But it was...like...satisfying?”

          “Cathartic,” Peridot supplied.

          “Yeah, that's it.”

          “I suppose I can see that...especially after, you know. All that you've been through, and stuff.” Peridot stopped walking now that they were well in sight of the open barn. Lapis paused with her, and looked concerned for her crestfallen friend.

          Suddenly, Peridot grabbed Lapis around the middle, and buried her face into the taller gem's midriff. “Lapis, why did you stay here after all that stuff happened?” she mumbled into Lazuli's tummy.

          Lapis patted the technician's muddy, angular hair. She looked a bit perturbed, but smiled all the same. “Because things change. My past isn't...great...but if I want that past to keep changing into a better future...where better than Earth to do it?”

          Peridot lifted her muddy head up, and nodded.

          “Last night was a good example. I helped write a song, I helped sing it, I got to see you do all that stuff on stage with the computers and lights?”

          “You talked to humans,” Peridot pointed out.

          “Yeah...I did. You did too, right? You and that weird human that looks kinda like a Pearl?”

          The two muddy gems trudged over to the barn entrance.

          “Before we pass out,” Lapis suggested, “we should definitely wash off.”

          “Agreed,” answered Peridot, “I trust you can help with that?”

          “Hrm...you know, I think I can.”

          Just then a clattering a plastic cups and water bottles filled the barn, and the sound of bare feet dragging on the wooden floor approached.

          The two gems looked warily for the intruder.

          “Hey,” came a monotone voice. “You guys say something about showers?” Sour Cream shuffled out from behind a speaker stack. “Cus I think I drank some aquarium water from a vacuum cleaner last night, then yurked into a baseball mitt. Then like, a pumpkin tried to eat it? I dunno. That might have been a dream.” He looked around at the destroyed barn, filled with black shards, then out to the smoking wreckage of the Homeworld ship. “Man, we really trashed this place, huh.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing action like this, so if you spot any mistakes, or if something is unclear, please leave a comment to let me know!


End file.
